The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-10
INTERVIEW WITH MRS. E. ]. MICH
OLSON.
Some Points About New Orleans
Newspaper Proprietor.
Copyrighted 1857


DAYS gentle-faced, graceful woman, fem
mime and almost fragile-looking, who oc-
cupies unique position in this work-a-day
America Mrs. Frank Leslie has taken a
suite of rooms at the Windsor for the win
ter. but this more recent visitor has upon
her hands an undertaking more difficult
than even that energetic business woman
ever attempted. Ms Eliza J. Nicholson Of
the New Orleans Iidcpute, Is the only
woman in the country. the only women Inv
ing who is at once the controlling proprie-
tor and the editor-in-chief of a big city daily
and she not only finds her her office chair
none too large to till and not too thorny 70
sit upon, but during her administration OF
the papers affairs has seen debt OF $50
900 lifted and its prosperity every year IN
creased
Mrs. Nicholson is still a young woman
and has two bright pretty children TO whom
she Is devoted, with her. Fine brave little
Southern bows they are, Just of an age to
find Miss Mary l. Booths famous cat Mutf
the most enticing object in the metropolis.
Mrs Nicholson Is slender and fair-skinned,
blue-eyed and with CLEAN of gold in her
hair She is quiet in her movements and
in ner tones with nothing to suggest the
hurry or the hustle of woman plunged
nervously into business cares. Her husband,
Mr.. George Nicholson, the business mana
Y
though of thirty years newspaper exper-
fence in this country, and has worn this
tie embroidered on his handkerchief-Ai
Nicholson embroiders as well as writes
through good luck and i'll since coming to
New York
Mrs. Nicholson is very modest and unas-
Stunning when questioned with regard to her
newspaper success.
1.-The paper has certainly thriven under
my control - she saws. but feel sure that
it would not have done so had | not been
Loyalty supported by my staff. Instead of
frettng or chatting in any way at coming
under petticOat government, everybody con
cerned, from the Office boy to the managing
editor has been devoted TO my interests and
more than willing TO carry out my wishes.
Nowhere except in the South could a woman
rule SO large an establishment with such
ease. | do not say that nowhere else could
a woman do it, for nobody knows what a
woman can do, least of all the woman her
sell, until she tries, but only in the South
would the difficulties be so smoothed away
for her. because nowhere else are the men 50
true and chivalrous. My boys work hard
to please me and | verify believe value "A
word of commentator from me more than
they would the same praise coming from a
man.
Mrs. Nicholson was the first woman TO
enter newspaper work in the South, and
for the work in spite of somewhat adverse
circumstances. She is a graceful poet and
the first lines of hers ever published brought
her check for SO from the Baltimore
journal to which they were sent. THAT
was the happiest moment of my life," she
says; lit was the first money | had ever
earned Other poems found their way to
the New York Home Journei and later to
the Pcdyuae. Father and brothers Oh
jected to her writing for money. 1t was
not in accord with the social code that a
lady should work, but she had found out for
herself how much pleaSanter it is to earn for
ones self than to accept from others, aud
gradually came to do more for the PcdVtne.
That paper sent her one year to the summer
resorts and she sent back bright letters from
Niagara and Saratoga On her return she
became literary editor, Judging poems and
copy of all sorts for the Sunday edition and
taking charge of the makeup of that sheet
After her marriage to the proprietor of the
pcdyuRe, Col. Holbrook, the work CON
tinued, she taking no desk in the office but
coming in one or twice week TO look over
her proofs. Col. Holbrook's death three
years afterward left her young widow
with the paper on her hands burdened with
a heavy debt. There was an almost unani-
nous chorus of advice from lawyers, rel
atives and friends.
''Give it up, it is too heavy load
for a woman, take what the law win allow
you and be free from newspaper cares.
Just one dissenting voice made itself heard
Mr.. Nicholson, the business manager, urged
her TO keep the paper, promising TO stand by
her if she would stand by the sheet. She
was brave enough to face the situation and
fight the battle out.
She became actually as well as nominally
editor-in-chief, being faithful to her office
hours from until every day, welding a
a,.1 ha & -.
paper on all important questions, political
and otherwise. With excellent manage
ment upstairs and down, in the business de
partment as well as in the editorial rooms
the burden of debt was lifted, new offices
built, and when the paper celebrated its
fiftieth anniversary last January, Mrs
Nicholson-such she became some two years
after taking charge of the paper-was able to
realize that she was at the head of a superb
establishment. Her husband continues to
direct the finances of the paper, while she
is supreme in the editorial rooms. descend
ing somewhat less TO details, perhaps, now
that she is mother as well as editor, but still
with a vigilant eye to the policy to be pur-
sued, and quick to note every chance for an
advantage to be gained.
''Do you think newspaper work desirable
for womenH she was asked the other day.
81 have had that question asked me many
times she answered, land it is difficult to
know how to reply. 1t all depends on the
woman. | would not advise a woman to
step up like a man and buy newspaper,
but if she should inherit one as did and if
she has literary tastes and is at all energetic
see no reason in the world why she should
sell out. 1t is liberal education to a wom-
an in many ways | never felt so little. SO
weak, so inadequate as in the first days
when | realized the task | had before me.
The decisions that had to make, the sight
of so many men looking to me for orders,
the queries that came up continually on
which side of this question and that the pa
per should declare itself, these things taught
me while taught myself how to answer
them. Everything grew easier in time and
now | sometimes think if l had any occasion
TO do so | should feel fully equal to taking
some of my bright young men from the
Hcdyune and setting up paper in Chat
tanooga or Birmingham, or some of the
places that are growing at such a lively rate
in the South.
"'Fhere is a fine opportunity for woman
TO try to do good in newspaper work, y Mrs.
Nicholson went on. "a woman looks to the
home interest, and my reporters understand
that nothing must go in in such a shape that
the purest woman cannot read 1t. There are
quantities of matter, unnecessary to pub
lish, left out in that way and family paper
is all the better for the omission. Then
there is the temperance question. Public
sentiment is not ready for prohibition, but